Category: JPSS-1

JPSS-1 Begins Final Preflight Processing

NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System-1, or JPSS-1, remains wrapped in a protective covering after removal from its shipping container at the Astrotech Processing Facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The spacecraft is being prepared for its upcoming liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex-2W. JPSS-1 is the first in a series four next-generation environmental satellites in a collaborative program between NOAA and NASA.
NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System-1, or JPSS-1, remains wrapped in a protective covering after removal from its shipping container at the Astrotech Processing Facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The spacecraft is being prepared for its upcoming liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex-2W. JPSS-1 is the first in a series four next-generation environmental satellites in a collaborative program between NOAA and NASA. Photo credit: NASA/Rodney Speed

NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System-1 spacecraft has been removed from its shipping container in the Astrotech Payload Processing Facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where it is being prepared for its upcoming launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket.

The JPSS-1 satellite will go through a series of routine inspections, checkouts and testing before it is sealed inside the payload fairing and placed atop the Delta II rocket, already standing at Space Launch Complex-2W. Launch remains scheduled for Nov. 10.

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NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System-1 Preparing for Launch

NASA's Joint Polar Satellite System-1, or JPSS-1, arrives at the Astrotech Processing Facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Above: NASA’s Joint Polar Satellite System-1, or JPSS-1, arrives at the Astrotech Processing Facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Below right: The United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket stands on Space Launch Complex 2. Photo credits: NASA/Randy Beaudoin

The United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket stands on Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The first satellite in NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System is at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California preparing for its upcoming liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. Launch is slated for November 10.

NOAA’s JPSS-1 satellite arrived Sept. 1 at the Astrotech Processing Facility at Vandenberg, where it is undergoing final steps toward encapsulation in the protective payload fairing. The Delta II rocket is in place at Space Launch Complex-2, awaiting the arrival of the fairing at the launch site.

NOAA partnered with NASA to implement the JPSS series of U.S. civilian polar-orbiting environmental remote sensing satellites and sensors. JPSS-1 has a seven-year design life and is the first in a series of NOAA’s four next-generation, polar-orbiting weather satellites.